Harlequins.
Juan Gris 1923.
Picasso 1927.
Dalí 1927.
The preoccupation of early modernists with harlequins can feel perplexing or even annoying. We don't speak that visual language anymore and if you search online for why they chose harlequins so often you won't get much satisfaction. But we may recognize our own function if not the particulars. Harlequins represented duality, but more, in that pre-tv generation they carried pathos and nostalgia for a lost age. Plus graphic argyles.